Cooling or heat removing is always an impediment in the constant development in various electronic industrial fields. To meet users' demands for highly efficient, highly integrated and multifunctional electronic devices, electronic manufacturers have to take up the big challenge in heat dissipation. Therefore, it has become a major task in the electronic industry to research and develop means enabling high efficient heat transfer and dissipation.
A heat sink is normally used for dissipating heat produced by electronic elements or systems into ambient air. A heat sink with lower thermal resistance would have higher heat dissipation efficiency. Generally speaking, thermal resistance includes two parts, namely, the spreading resistance inside the heat sink and the thermal resistance of convection between the surface of the heat sink and the ambient air. In implementation, materials with high thermal conductivity, such as copper and aluminum, are often used to manufacture the heat sink, so as to reduce the thermal resistance thereof. However, the thermal resistance of convection would limit the performance of the heat sink, preventing the same from meeting the heat dissipation efficiency required by the new generation of electronic elements.
Currently, heat dissipating mechanisms with better efficiency are continuously introduced into the market, such as the thermal module combining heat sink and heat pipe having high heat conducting performance, in order to effectively solve the current problem of heat dissipation.
Presently, there are several different ways available for associating the heat pipe with the heat sink. One of these ways is connecting the heat pipe to through holes formed on the heat sink by way of tight fitting. However, in this connecting way, the heat pipe and the heat sink are subject to scratch or deformation when the heat pipe is forced through the through holes. In some worse conditions, the through holes would even become broken. Therefore, the good yield of thermal module manufactured in this connecting way is relatively low.
Another way is to connect the heat pipe to the through holes formed on the heat sink by way of loose fitting, and apply thermal paste or tin solder in the clearance between the heat pipe and the heat sink. To use this connecting way, grooves communicating with the through holes must be formed on the heat sink, and the thermal paste or tin solder is applied in the grooves. More particularly, the heat pipe is first extended through the through holes, and then the thermal paste or tin solder is heated to melt into liquid, and allow the molten thermal paste or tin solder to cool and set between the heat pipe and the heat sink. The second way of associating the heat pipe with the heat sink has low manufacturing efficiency because a large number of processing steps is involved to increase the total processing time needed to complete the finished product, and surplus thermal paste or tin solder tends to drip on the heat sink to cause poor appearance and increased thermal impedance of the heat sink.
It is therefore tried by the inventor to overcome the above problems by developing an improved radiating fin, a thermal module using the same, and a method of manufacturing the same.